Basherts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Objects or persons regarded as destined matches or fated partners, especially in romantic contexts; things or events believed to be predestined or meant to be encountered
2. Individuals or items considered to be perfectly suited or divinely matched; occurrences that seem preordained or inevitably linked by fate
3. Elements or people thought to be chosen by destiny for union or connection; happenings that appear to have been determined by destiny or fortune

Etymology: "Basherts" is the plural of "bashert," a Yiddish noun meaning a destined romantic partner, and it comes from a German verb that originally meant something quite different: to bestow or hand out a gift. Middle High German "beschern" meant to allot, provide, or bring as a gift, and in German today "bescheren" still carries that sense, as in giving out presents at Christmas. The Yiddish "bashert" took the idea of a portion that is allotted or fated and applied it to the one person a person was meant to marry. The shift from an everyday act of giving to a matter of destiny is the heart of the word's story. Something allotted is something already decided, and over time the thing decided became the partner, so that a "bashert" is someone whose match was preordained. Yiddish speakers borrowed the term from the German of the Middle Ages and reshaped it in their own language.

Synonyms: soulmates, destined partners, fated matches

Antonyms: strangers, enemies